Between the Oak Trees
by beyondthetower
Summary: She preferred the life of Oak Tree Town to her old city life. It offered fresh air, lazy days and a new family she's grown accustomed to. Best of all it offered Raeger: a quiet, stunning local chef that took her breath away. But when the idea becomes a reality the family she's grown to rely on starts splintering, and the quiet life becomes nothing but noise. (Full summary inside)
1. Chapter 1

**Summary**: Annie preferred the life of Oak Tree Town to the business of her old, city life. It offered fresh air, lazy days and a new, patchwork family she's grown accustom to. Best of all, it offered Raeger: a quiet, stunning local chef that took her breath away. While the idea of a relationship with Raeger seemed like an unachievable dream, Annie seems to find him wherever she turns. But when she the idea becomes something of a reality, the family she's grown to rely on starts splintering, and the quiet life she's built becomes nothing but noise.

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_**A/N:**__ Hi Friends! Welcome to my newest Harvest Moon story! I guess now it should just be referred to as my Story of Season's story, but it still feels so weird to call it that. I actually started writing this forever ago, and completely forgot about it, so I figured it would be cool to give it a shot again and see where it goes. I'm sure I had an idea in mind when I wrote it, but what that is I can't actually remember. So come on this fun adventure with me and let's see where this story takes us!_

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**Spring**

Mornings were my favorite. Back in the city, all of my friends were night owls. Every night after work they would go out for dinner or drinks or both. Sometimes they would be successful in dragging me out the door with them, but most of the time I was sneaky enough to leave just before they finished their own work and head to the subway to spend the night at home—just me and my cat Luna.

It didn't take a lot of thought to send in my farming application. Actually, it didn't take _enough_ thought. I just kind of did it. One afternoon when I was sifting through the mail over a bowl of cereal I saw the pamphlet: **Farmers Wanted! Come live your dream life as a small-town farmer in quaint Oak Tree Town. This ranch, recently abandoned by the former party, is the perfect spot for a fresh start. Interested? Send in the attached application today!**

I wasn't sure farming was my "dream life", but something about it called to me.

Here in Oak Tree, the rest of the town loved mornings too. Maybe that's why I felt so at home so quickly. When my application was accepted I almost laughed it off. Who in their right mind would _actually_ drop their life to go run a farm in god knows where? Me, apparently. Because it was only a few days before Luna, my suitcase and I were shipping off to Oak Tree and I was starting a brand new life.

When I walked outside that morning the sun was just barely streaming through the trees. The land they'd given me was pretty deep in the woods. It took a long time to get there from town and was surrounded in a wall of forests. It was the most secluded part of the secluded little town.

"Good morning, Maisy," I chirped at the cow lazing around in the pasture beside my house. In my wicker basket, I pulled out a brush and shined her coat, making sure to get the spots she had clearly mashed into the dirt. My mornings were now a swirl of this: brushing, milking, watering, harvesting. There was something about getting most of my work done before the rest of the town was awake that settled my soul.

Over the pasture and down the road, I could see a far-off figure puttering through the fields on the land next to mind. Eda was probably almost done with her morning, and I was just getting started. She glanced over, and must have seen me watching her, because soon she was raising her arm up as high as her fragile old bones would allow and waving at me. I waved back. It was no use to call out to her; she wouldn't hear me anyway.

Eda was the first person I got to know when I got here. Veronica, the Guild Leader, introduced us, and Eda was nice enough to take me in for a little while they continued to clean up my place. She was excited to hear that I was new to farming, and dropped everything that first week to teach me the basics of the trade. She had been running that place for decades, after all. She was the expert.

"Good morning, Annie!"

The singsong voice called to me when I was watering my turnips in the field a little ways away from the house. I glanced up, shielding the sun from my eyes enough to see the figure balancing himself on the fence and leaning in toward me.

"Hi, Fritz," I called over my shoulder.

Fritz was another farmer in town. There were a lot of them actually, more than I was expecting. With that flyer and everything, I just assumed they needed someone because of the _lack_ of farmers. But this place was bristling with them. It was nice, of course, to have people to walk me through what I was doing. But it was a little intimidating too. They were all a lot more experienced than I was…

"They're selling more seeds at the general store, you know." Fritz leaned up against his palms, the soles of his shoes balancing on the bar just a step up from the tall grass. I needed to have Maisy head over to this side of the yard to graze someday.

"Oh yeah?" I asked, sprinkling the last of my crops with the watering can. "What kinds?"

Fritz started listing things: potatoes, grass seed, he even thought he saw a seedling for a peach tree. He wasn't one for fruit trees, really—it took too long to grow—but he knew I had been eyeing the ones at the farm closer to town.

All of this talk of seeds sparked something in my head. I looked up at him. "Did you remember to water those new turnip seeds you planted, by the way?"

Fritz scrunched his nose, indicating that no, he had not, and sucked in a heap of air through his teeth. "Oops," he said.

There were five of us farmers in town, three of which I would consider to be tenured. Fritz was not one of them. He lived next door to Giorgio, who was passionate and experienced. Of course, because of that, he picked on the run-down farm that Fritz struggled to run. So when I got here, and Fritz and I became friends, I promised to help him keep it up enough to earn a little respect from the Giorgio. It was proving to be harder than I thought.

"Fritz," I laughed. "That's like, the third day in a row."

"I'm sorry!" he smiled and rested his chin on his forearms. "There's so much to remember, I get confused."

By now, I had managed to step across enough of my crops that I was beside him at the fence. I leaned up against it, watching him settle into his spot and smile at me. Fritz had kind eyes. That was my favorite thing about him. He had deep, brown, doe eyes and expressive eyebrows. They made him easy to read, and easy to talk to.

"I know you do." I tried to sound sympathetic. "But you're gonna need the money if you want to shove your summer harvest in Giorgio's face."

"Ugh, you're right." Fritz pushed himself back upright and hopped off of the fence. "What does your day look like? Want to come keep me company?"

I glanced back at my crops, counting the beds and trying to remember if I had planted anything new recently that would forget about. But Maisy was milked, the hens were fed, I was sure I was good.

"Sure," I told him, dropping the watering can at my feet. I made a note to pick it up later on. "I think I can manage that."


	2. Chapter 2

The first time I met Fritz I was eating breakfast with Eda. It was the first week I was here, and my farm was still being prepared, so my days were spent working on Eda's farm to learn what to do on my own. On this morning in particular, I was eating a plate of toast and fresh scrambled eggs at the kitchen table. There was a knock on the door, and before she had the chance to answer it Fritz came bounding in with his dirt-smeared face and too-bright smile.

"Hey, Granny!" He slid his mud-caked boots off and dropped them on the tray beside the house like he had made this entrance a million times. "Need any help? I finished up my work early today."

Eda's face lit up when she saw him. I had assumed they were related—until she explained him later on that night. "Good morning, dear," she cooed. "How sweet, to stop by and help out an old lady."

"Oh, you know I couldn't let you run this whole thing yourself." He looked over at me then, his eyebrow cocking and his smile never wavering. "Oh hey. New face."

Eda introduced us quickly: explaining that I was taking over the farm next door and that I was living here in the meantime. She told me that Fritz lived at one of the farms at the base of the mountain, and came here every few days to help her out.

Through this entire introduction, Fritz still beamed, and in the two seasons I had known him he had never wiped that look off of her face. "Well, Annie," he said to me then. "It's great to meet you. Any friend of Eda is a friend of mine."

"Speaking of which," Eda added quickly. I hadn't gotten a chance to speak yet. I wondered if they would ever let me. "I'm glad you stopped by, Fritz. I was thinking about this last night. It would make me really happy to see the two of you become close friends. If you wouldn't mind doing an old lady a favor."

It was blunt, and out of nowhere, and I didn't really know how to respond to that. Luckily, Fritz did it for the both of us. "Of course, Granny! What do you say, best friend? Want to help me gather the eggs this morning?"

Again, before I could respond, Eda spoke for me. "Oh don't you worry about it, you two. Annie, why don't you take the day off? The two of you go out and explore. Fritz, maybe you can take Annie on a tour of town."

I hadn't been to town since my first day there. Veronica met me at the Trade Depot with a warm smile and a head full of important things she needed to tell me. It was hard to keep it all straight: this is the Guild where you can find the clinic, the restaurant is open six days a week but closed on Wednesdays, that direction is more homes and shops (all of which I had forgotten by now). So I liked the idea of getting a proper, less dizzying tour. But I had gotten so accustom to life with Eda—the slow, easy conversations, the frenzy-free days. This kid seemed like the exact opposite of that.

Fritz gave her a thumbs-up; with a grin that caught the light shining through the window long enough for me to see one of his front teeth had a tiny chip in it. "You got it!" To me he added, "Come on, Annie, let's get moving. There's a lot of town to see, and the walk is prettiest in the morning."

If I'm being honest, part of the reason I was avoiding going back into town was the uphill trek, but it was a lot nicer to stroll through the forest downhill. There were lots of different breaks in the path, but Fritz knew exactly which one to follow. On the way down he shared openly his life story: he moved here a few years ago with a similar mindset as me. He was wandering through life and wanted to find a real one, so he took up farming and while he was still new to it he liked spending all of his time outside.

Fritz beamed when he talked. It wasn't just the farming either, he did it when he talked about almost everything. It was the first thing I picked up on with him—that and the fact that he didn't like silence and filled it with just about any story he could think of. As we walked through the grain field, where the rice paddies and wheat field sat side-by-side, he was going deep into detail on where to find the best fishing spots in town.

"So the one behind the wheat field there is great," Fritz said as we walked out into another open field with a stone bridge to the right. "But the spot at Eda's is the _best_. It's like a little-known secret. No one ever cares enough to make the trek up there so it leaves more fish for the rest of us."

A sparrow flew past us quickly, landing with a flutter on a tree across the way. I gasped, and stepped back, my cheeks red from embarrassment when I realized it was just a little bird that had caught me so off guard. "Jesus," I whispered.

"Aw, don't be scared of that little guy!" Fritz chimed. Then, as he pulled me by the wrist to the tree where he had landed, he added, "Here, animals love me. It'll be your first real introduction in town." I offered him a pity laugh, as I assumed it had been a joke.

"I don't think _love_ is quite the word."

The tall, thin man had been watching us from the bridge. In the distance I could see another farm sign, made of stone and iron and a lot nicer looking than the one immediately to the left of it. He had peach colored hair and a narrow, pointed face. His nose turned up in a way that made it seem like that was both a physical and metaphorical trait, and a smug smile played on his lips when he spoke.

"I would say the more correct word would be _tolerate_. On a good day."

Beside me, I glanced at Fritz to get a hint of whether or not this was playful banter or just a rude conversation. I was still getting the rude vibe, but Fritz seemed unfazed.

"Aw, come on, Giorgio, that's not fair. I'm great with animals."

Giorgio smirked again, a hand placed firmly on his hip. "Sure, Fritz, whatever you say. What are you doing here anyway? Should you be watering those turnips? They're looking a little dry."

Fritz hopped over to where he stood, motioning for me to follow. "I'm showing Annie here around town. Trying to make her feel more at home, you know? There's a lot to get used to in this place!"

Giorgio looked over at me, as I walked up behind Fritz, offering me a limp hand to shake and flashing me a too-bright smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Annie. Do you go by Annie? Maybe Anne? You look like you could be an Anne."

"Annie is fine," I piped up. I figured it wasn't worth mentioning I hated being called Anne. "It's nice to meet you."

"So you're the new farmer then? The taking on that run-down old shack by Lady Eda's house?" The _Lady_ made me cringe. It was almost insulting.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah that's me." I glanced at Fritz again, but he was still looking at Giorgio like he was a perfectly normal human and this was a perfectly friendly conversation. "It should be ready in a day or two."

"Well." He barely let me finish my sentences. I was getting pretty sick of that. "If you need any advice I live right over the bridge to the right—Rosewood Farms is the name—and I'm always happy to offer my experience to the younger generation."

"Right," I said curtly. "Thanks."

With a lazy wave of his hand, Giorgio wandered over to the path we had just come from, mentioning something about harvesting his wheat crop and saying farewell.

"Is that how he normally acts?" I asked as Fritz started back toward the entrance to town.

"Who, Giorgio? Yeah he's eccentric. Great guy though! I love living next to him. There's a lot to learn from him."

Out loud I agreed, but inside I scoffed.

The rest of the day was spent in a second swirl of introductions. Fritz marched me around town; introducing me to everyone we saw on the street and pushing open the doors of the people who spent their days in a shop. I met the Antique dealer and his Novelist sister, the grumbling old carpenter and his beautiful young wife, the town doctor and Veronica's daughter the nurse—all people that I was sure I had met before, but were kind enough to pretend they had forgotten my name as well. Fritz spoke quickly and I struggled to keep up with all of his bullet points.

\- The general store is closed on Sundays so make sure you check your feed boxes on Saturday

\- If you get the chance to rent a public field, talk to Veronica about it she's your gal

\- If you get hungry and have some cash to spare, Raeger's place is the best food in town

\- Occasionally, we'll have vendors at the town square trading goods and whatnot so make sure to check that out daily

Aside from the speed talking, Fritz was an easygoing guy. Maybe that's why we became friends as quickly as we did. At first, his talking was annoying and head-splitting, but by the time that I was settled into my own place, it almost felt like home. Now, he'd visit every few days. We'd walk into town, check out the visiting booths, and get a bite to eat. He may have been my only real friend in town, but he was a good one, and I liked spending time with him.


	3. Chapter 3

"How about now?" Fritz called out from somewhere behind his little hut.

I stood alone in his crop field, staring at the leaves of the turnips were starting to brown. Fritz's farm wasn't so much his own space as it was a sad an unused part of Georgio's farm that got taken over by a novice, go-lucky kid. Just behind the fence, Georgio's flower fields sprawled out between walls of evergreen trees and made the entire clearing look alive—blooming in puffs of pinks, reds and yellows. Meanwhile, poor Fritz was struggling to keep even the grass green.

"No!" I called over my shoulder.

There was silence, then again, "Now?"

"Nope!"

Fritz's footsteps trudged heavy from out behind me, and placed his hands heavily on his hips. "Damn," he sighed. The hose in my hand stood still and mocking.

"If I ask you a question you promise you won't get mad?" I tried. To be honest, I didn't really have to ask. Fritz never got mad.

"Shoot," he replied.

"Have you been forgetting to water your crops or _forgetting_ to water your crops?"

At first, he just stared at me, trying to piece together the question. Then he smirked, laughed, and shook his head. "What?"

"I mean, have you actually been forgetting or has your hose been broken so you've been purposefully putting it off?"

"Such little faith," he chuckled, throwing his arms above his head and stepping backwards. In an almost clumsy, kind of _graceful_ way, he turned on the ball of his foot and slid off of the line of rocks separating his vegetable patch from the lawn. "This is the first time I have been made aware of it," Fritz went on. "I can hear the water turning on, it just isn't coming out of this end." He pointed at the nozzle of the hose as I dropped it onto the dust.

The late morning sun was pouring over the valley, birds sang around river bed and bees flew from flower to flower in Georgio's garden, sometimes buzzing past us on their way back home. For the peak of the day it was still quiet, and I liked that about this place. Occasionally you heard the swing of a hammer or the call of a voice down by the square.

"Maybe I ask Gunther if he has any ideas," Fritz said to be then, hopping back down from his tool shed to where I stood, waiting. "I've heard he helps Maurice out sometimes with plumbing at the Inn."

"Worth a shot," I added.

Down by the forest, the grass turned to moss, covering the pine-scattered dirt and the boulders lining the trees. I walked toward them, studying the deep forest I hadn't yet traversed. I wondered how far back it went, how thick or how settled it was, how far we were from the nearest village.

_(more)

"Annie!'

I turned at my name, seeing the silhouette of Fritz overlooking the edge of the forest where I stood. I hadn't realized his land was so hilly.

"Does it look like I watered those cabbages down there?" his shadow called out.

I glanced down at the plot of dirt beside me, where springs of green were blooming from the ground, and sighed. "No, it doesn't," I called back.

I couldn't see his face, but I assumed that he was grinning at me when he said, "Oops."

The town center had gotten slightly busier since I first got to town. With the addition of a few new stalls at the Trade Depot, a few new faces graced the sidewalks and benches outside of the local businesses as Fritz and I walked down to the visit the stalls. The local nurse Angela walked by, blushed at Fritz as he said hello, and mumbled a greeting back.

One thing I noticed about Fritz over the past month of being his "best friend" was that he rarely noticed other people's feelings. True, it could be annoying sometimes, and dangerous I was sure, but it was also kind of endearing. It took a solid three minutes with Angela to realize she was head over heels for Fritz. She fidgeted and blushed whenever he spoke, careful to keep her eyes down to her feet. But Fritz rarely noticed, just like he rarely noticed when other people weren't as enthusiastic to speak to him as he was to them. And while sometimes people found it irritating, I had noticed that, sometimes, that annoying positivity actually rubbed off on people.

I noticed it now, for instance, as we stood at the counter of the Guild, Fritz talking Veronica's ear off about one of the fields that would be going up for sale soon. While Veronica held her usual, stony face as Fritz explained what the root crop field would mean to him, and slowly started veering into conversation about this old field he used to play in at his hometown with his neighborhood friends, which _then_ veered into conversations about how his parents were still planning to come and visit soon but hadn't figured out a time that worked yet. The more he talked, the softer she looked. I even caught a smile at one point before he waved goodbye and pushed his way back out into the sunshine.

Beside me, Fritz inhaled dramatically. "Beautiful day, Annie, isn't it?"

"Sure is," I told him, watching out over the lower section of the town where a group of ladies sat fanning themselves in the shade of a willow tree.

Summer was on its way, that was for sure. The breeze blowing over the hills was warmer, the sun was stronger, the flowers were finally in full bloom. I was looking forward to it, to be honest. Although I would need to find more suitable clothes.

"Raeger! Over here!"

I tensed.

While I did usually appreciate Fritz' obliviousness, the one time I didn't appreciate it was literally any time Raeger was in the vicinity. I turned into Angela then—palms sweating, knees weak, eyes glued strictly to the cobblestones. Across the way, Raeger was fiddling with the lock at the restaurant. When he heard his name he looked over, nodded toward us with a smile and slipped the key back into his pocket.

"Afternoon Fritz. Annie." Raeger nodded at each of us once he got closer, stopping in front of us and digging his hands into the pocket of his apron. Sometimes, on his way out, he would forget to take it off and end up wearing it around town. I always thought that was cute.

"Don't tell me you're closing up already," Fritz asked him as he glanced back at the empty outdoor seating area.

"No, don't worry, we'll be back open in a few. I just have to run down to the Depot to pick up an order from one of the vendors," Raeger said.

"Perfect timing," Fritz chimed. "We were just on our way there, we'll walk with you."

As we headed down the stairs to the lower town, Fritz filled the silence with whatever was floating around in his head. He talked a lot about his crops, which he liked to let Raeger thing were positively prospering, and explained to him the cool meals he'd learned to make over the last few weeks. All of which, I was sure, Raeger found boring, but smiled at and acted interested in none the less.

Let me be clear, I wasn't in _love _with Raeger or anything. I just had this unexplainable knot in my stomach absolutely every time he came around. He just had this calm, kind heir about him that made every part of my being freak out. The first time we met I had been walking through town stumbling over my own feet in a hurry to reach the Depot before the vendors left. With neither of us paying much attention, we almost ran into each other on the deserted path. He smiled warmly, introduced himself, and told me in the always polite way of his to stop by any time.

I rarely did.

The Depot was bustling with its usual afternoon business. Business being a relative term that is. There was about a dozen people wandering around, going between the three stalls that had popped up to bargain off their goods. I glanced around to see where I wanted to start while Fritz begged Raeger to show him how to make the pot-pie he had a few weeks back.

"I can't, man, it's an old family recipe," Raeger chuckled as Fritz clasped his hands together, begging.

"Oh come_ on_ Raeger! I've been having dreams about the stuff since I ate it."

"Well then, stop by whenever you want to and I would be _thrilled_ to whip you up another one," Raeger chimed.

"I'll win you over yet, sir."

We had stopped in the middle of the circular foundation, right in the line of the traffic flow. From the northern side of the square, Asche at the Silk County booth was smiling kindly at a customer and filling a worn out basket with goods, laughing at something the man had said. Marielle was stroking an assumedly sold cow's nose, waiting for the new owner to stop by and pick it up while a few women chatted around her booth.

Now that the spring was coming to a close I would have to start thinking of what I was going to plant for the summer. I hadn't quite found my niche yet—I was just as neutral at growing veggies as I was at growing flowers—but I found myself gravitating toward the former.

"Raeger!"

The three of us glanced over Raeger's shoulder toward where the Cabin County vendor was smiling in our direction, hand shielding her eyes from the afternoon sun.

"Op, that's for me," Raeger said as Marielle called out to him again with a large waive. "I'll see you later Fritz." He smiled at me and nodded. "Annie."

"You know," I said to Fritz as I watched for too long as Raeger headed over toward Marielle's stall. I tried to look away quickly, shaking my head and hoping that Fritz didn't notice as we moseyed toward Asche. "I'm going to have to pick up my summer seeds soon if I want to be prepared, which means I'll probably have to do that before I actually _sell_ the spring harvest."

"Think you're gonna have enough?"

One thing I did appreciate about Fritz is that he understood the plight of the poor farmer. His farm having yet to take off, he was used to that season-to-season living, wondering if you'd ever have enough to live on. The different between us, though, was that he seemed to thrive in that middle ground.

"I don't know," I admitted. "I have enough to start out I think, but I'd rather do all the planting at once. It would help me keep the timing of everything straight, you know?"

Asche greeted us with a gruff hello when we reached her, pushing her basket of seeds toward us and pretending it wasn't on purpose. Fritz flicked through the packets and made faces at each one, clearly not interested in any of his options.

"We'll figure it out, Annie," Fritz said, tossing an arm lazily around my shoulder and glancing up toward the bright spring sky. "We always do."

Whether it was because I wanted to see it or it really did happen, I could have sworn that I saw Raeger glance over at us then.


End file.
